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“Midas,” she rasped. She hadn’t been asking about Henry. “What will happen to Midas? He assaulted Henry.” Punched him again and again. It had taken a small army of guards to pull Midas off his father. “Is he going to jail?” His father had been bound, unable to fight back.
He hadn’t wanted to fight back. He’d just kept laughing and laughing.
She feared he’d wanted to push Midas into the attack. Goad him so that Midas would wind up a prisoner, too.
Once more, the detectives glanced at each other. And, yet again, Calvin cleared his throat. “No charges. Henry said he didn’t want his son punished, and the DA was certainly sympathetic to Midas’s, ah, situation…” His words trailed off.
“Henry wanted his son punished.” Alina believed that with every bit of her being. “That’s why he arranged for us to be together in the first place.”
“Alina.” Joyce winced. “I understand you’ve been through a stressful situation. I can empathize with you.”
Ophelia snorted. “So glad you understand and empathize. It’s great that you can relate to being kidnapped, stuffed in closet, terrorized, oh, and then you empathize with finding out that your boyfriend’s dad killed your mom. Her situation is so super relatable.”
Joyce’s eyes narrowed.
Ophelia just tossed back her dark hair and met the detective’s angry stare. “What?”
“I thought he was a bodyguard,” Calvin noted quietly. “Not the boyfriend.”
“Like you can’t be both?” Ophelia huffed out a breath. “I’m her friend and her bodyguard, so there.”
“Be that as it may…” Joyce’s rose a bit as she tried to retake control of the situation. “We have found no evidence that Henry ‘arranged’ for you and Midas to interact. As I said before, we believe that Bowie Dodge was the mastermind of…”
She kept talking.
But Ophelia had turned her head toward Alina. “Bowie,” Ophelia repeated. “You buying that?”
Alina didn’t know what to buy. Her gut said no, though.
“The investigation has concluded.” Joyce had wound up her summary. “We wanted to personally inform you and answer any additional questions that you may have.”
Alina had plenty of questions. “Where is Midas?” Maybe that shouldn’t have been the one that sprang straight to her lips. But it did. She’d feared he’d been behind bars. When she’d last seen him in North Dakota, five guards had been hauling him down a narrow hallway. They’d barely been able to restrain him.
Henry’s blood-covered grin had been monstrous. “See what he is? He can’t keep his true self hidden, not any longer.”
And she’d realized that Henry had always intended to push Midas over the edge.
“We, um, are not quite aware of Midas’s current whereabouts.” A flat statement from Joyce. “We suspect he may still be in North Dakota, potentially assisting Oliver Foxx.”
So…he wasn’t close. He also wasn’t locked up. He’d chosen to stay away from Alina. “Thank you for coming to speak with me.”
Surprise flashed in Calvin’s dark eyes. “No more questions?”
Too many to count.
“Time is up, Alina!” Dmitri thundered from across the rink.
“I have to skate.” Quiet. “Thank you.” She pulled from Ophelia. Her skates cut across the ice.
The investigation was over. The detectives believed the leader of the kidnapping ring was dead. That should mean that Alina was safe again. Her life could return to normal. She picked up speed as she raced around the ice. Faster and faster, she went. And she didn’t feel the cold. Not at all.
In fact, she barely felt anything.
Chapter Twenty
“Just how long do you intend to keep up your stalker routine?” Ophelia demanded. She yanked her coat closer and glowered at Midas. “Hiding across the street? Hunching in shadows? So creepy.”
He glared at her. “You should not be here.” And he wasn’t hunching under a shadow. Not right then.
